Wednesday, June 06, 2012

I have for the most part, not weighed in on the effort to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Mostly due to the fact that I live in London. I was born and raised in Wisconsin, but have not lived there, (and therefore not paid state taxes there), for more than 15 years. I did follow the events that lead to the recall effort, via the national media coverage. The popular movement to oust Walker had momentum, a great deal of energy and a decent organization behind it. Yet as the dust settled late last night, the news from my home state was that Governor Walker had won the recall election, and won it rather convincingly.

The reactions have been fairly predictable. People on the left are shocked and depressed, and people on the right are overjoyed, all the while the political divide in Wisconsin remains as wide a chasm as it was before this whole saga started.

Obviously, I am not a fan of Scott Walker, and I would have been as happy to see him go, as many Republican friends of mine are, to see him stay. With the Wisconsin State Senate back in the hands of the Democrats, Gov. Walker will find it a bit more difficult to force through his agenda. So there is at least one bright spot for the Democratic Party this morning. Yet the overall result of the Recall Walker effort, raises a number of very bright red flags for not just the Wisconsin Democratic Party, but for Democrats nationally, and for President Obama's re-election campaign.

On the surface the race to recall Scott Walker should have been a cakewalk. Nearly one million people signed the petition to hold the recall vote. It was a truly popular movement propelled forward by the largest outpouring of public dissent since the days of the Vietnam War.

Yet the Democrats couldn't seal the deal Why? To a certain extent it highlights the cultural differences between the America's two main political parties. Specially how the two parties relate to their respective base voters. The GOP pays attention to it's base. The Democrats put up with theirs. The GOP understands that voters have short memories and even shorter attention spans. The Democrats are often far more enamoured of (or more often bogged down in) the process, than they are focused on the results.

For the Wisconsin GOP/Tea Party faithful the issues were clear; The hysterical, fat, greedy and lazy public employees were in bed with the loony lefty socialist Obama loving Union Thugs, and they were all out to destroy them.

The fact that the policies of Scott Walker are as equally bad for them as they are for everybody else really didn't matter. For The Republican base this wasn't political it was personal. So they fought back like it was personal. The Democratic base, started out fired up, but there was no real large scale effort to keep them engaged, so they soon got bored and wandered off.

When Scott Walker came under siege, the national conservative apparatus kicked into high gear, funnelling massive amounts of cash into the State. Millions of dollars worth of Ads, robo-calls, and op-ed's flooded Wisconsin's airwaves, phone lines and blogosphere.

Meanwhile, the national progressive apparatus can never decide what the core issue is on a given day. The Unions have an agenda slightly different from the Occupy folks, who have slightly different goals than the environmentalists, who have slightly different goals than the LGBT rights activists, who are odds with the African American Churches, who disagree with the Latinos on immigration who have a slightly different agenda than....than,.. than.... You get the picture.

The Democrats began this fight with a massive popular movement behind them, and after collecting enough signatures to hold the recall election, they completely failed to use that movement or harness the energy of it. Instead they allowed themselves to get bogged down in a tedious primary election battle between Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. All the while the Democratic National Committee and the Obama Administration tried desperately to keep their distance, while trying desperately to not look like they were trying to keep their distance.

Finally when the polls were showing that Scott Walker was actually ahead, and gaining ground. Bill Clinton was dispatched a few days before the election to try to relight the progressive fire under the Democratic base.

Sadly, it would be too little, too late.

For President Obama, there are some disturbing lessons from the Walker victory. You can't come in at the last minute to engage the base and expect the same fire and energy you had in 2008.

The Democratic loss in yesterday's recall election has, like it or not, put Wisconsin and its ten electoral votes in play. Wisconsin is now clearly apurple state.

Sunday, June 03, 2012

We trekked into Central London for the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Yes, it rained, yes it was cold, and overall the day was pretty miserable weather-wise. But the enthusiasm of the HUGE crowds more than made up for it.

But the soggy wait was worth it. The Royal Barge went by, we waved, the Queen waved, and everybody felt part of something truly historic. Even if the idea of hereditary priviledge seems rather silly in the 21rst Century, even the most strident anti-monarchist UK Republican had to marvel at the spectacle of it all.